Raising a Bilingual Child

According to a recent census, there are 1,365 rationalized mother tongues, 234 identifiable mother tongues, and 122 major languages in India. This linguistic diversity contributes to the rich tapestry of our culture. In our everyday lives in India, it is common for us to communicate in more than one language, creating an ideal environment for raising a bilingual child.

For instance, many families navigate a multilingual landscape where they speak a particular mother tongue at home, live in a state with a different dominant language, and encounter English as the medium of instruction at school. Additionally, there are families with parents from different cultural backgrounds, each speaking their own mother tongue, residing in a state where an entirely different language is spoken. These diverse scenarios expose children to multiple languages, extending beyond their mother tongue.

This exposure to multiple languages from an early age can be incredibly beneficial for children, enhancing their language skills and cognitive abilities. It nurtures their ability to comprehend and communicate in different languages, facilitating cultural understanding and integration. Raising a bilingual child in such an environment promotes linguistic versatility and opens doors to greater opportunities for personal and professional growth.

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“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart” – Nelson Mandela

What is Bilingualism?

The ability to be able to communicate or use two or more languages is called Bilingualism. Raising a bilingual child has many benefits, such as creating strong family and cultural bonds. The way you support bilingualism in your family depends on your family situation and the languages you use at home. Children have a natural ability to pick up new words and sounds easily and this helps them learn languages faster than adults. But how does this benefit them? Read on!!

Benefits of Raising a Bilingual Child

1. It improves cognitive skills and fights certain mental diseases.

2. Learning multiple languages helps your child develop superior reading and writing skills.

3. Bilingual children also tend to have over all better analytical, social, and academic skills than their monolingual peers.

4. Knowing more than one language helps your child feel at ease in different environments. It also helps create a natural flexibility and adaptability and increases her self-esteem and self confidence.

5. Bilingual children are able to make new friends and create strong relationships in their second language.

6. Helps develop an appreciation for other cultures and an innate acceptance of cultural differences in your child.

7. Bilingual children tend to have better academic results as they can often concentrate better and have better analytical skills. They may also be better at multitasking.

8. An increased sense of self-worth, identity and belonging can be seen in bilingual  children. This includes feeling good about one’s own cultural heritage and minority language and feeling confident about communicating and connecting with extended family members.

9. Ability to enjoy art, music, movies and literature in more than one language

10. Diverse career opportunities later in life

Challenges in Raising a Bilingual Child

1. Delay in speech

Some believe that children being raised in bilingual or multilingual homes or environments may show a three to six months delay in speech development compared to monolingual children. It is kind of obvious, since a child who is leaning two or more languages is learning twice as many words as a monolingual child. When you look at it this way, a period of three to six months is a small price to pay for the ability to be bilingual.

2. Mixing Languages

Mixing words is very common when children are learning more than one language at a time. They may also borrow words from the second language when they don’t remember a particular word from the first language and vice versa. But parents need not worry as it is a temporary phase and only lasts till the child has mastered the vocabulary of both languages.

There’s no doubt that multilingual children have more advantages than monolingual children and even the challenges that exist are minor ones.  Be consistent and patient and your efforts will reap rewards – your children will have learnt a valuable skill that they can use in various situations throughout their lives. So keep calm and chatter on!!!

Author

Deepali has a BA in sociology from Pune University; Masters in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai); PG Diploma in School Psychology from Janana Prabodhini Institute of Psychology. She has the experience of working in the field of Family & Child Welfare since the last 15 yrs. She is currently a freelancer with 3 different adoption agencies and is an adoptive parent herself.